IRVINE, Calif. – April 25, 2008 – Arizona reported 9,199 properties with foreclosure filings for March 2008, down 5 percent from the previous month, but still 106 percent above the level reported for March 2007, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. One in every 283 Arizona households received a foreclosure filing during the month, 1.9 times the national average and the fourth highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states.

RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of foreclosure and bank-owned properties, with over 1 million properties from nearly 2,500 counties across the country, and is the foreclosure data provider to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and The Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal.

“With falling home prices in the metro Phoenix area and rising foreclosure filings in the Valley, Arizona may continue to see the pain of foreclosure activity,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “In the coming months, as we enter the spring selling season, we will see if Arizona’s foreclosure crisis has leveled off or continues on.”

The Grand CanyonState’s total foreclosure filings for March were outdistanced by national leader California, which reported 64,711 properties with foreclosure filings in March. Arizona’s total foreclosure filings was also well behind second place Florida, which documented 30,254 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. Ohio was comfortably in third place, reporting 11,273 properties with foreclosure filings. Georgia’s 11,047 properties with foreclosure filings came in fourth place, and Texas came in fifth, reporting 10,700 properties with foreclosure filings. The remaining states in the nation’s top 10 for total foreclosure filings in March were Michigan, Illinois, Nevada and Colorado.

Top three counties account for bulk of state total in March

Three Arizona counties accounted for 92 percent of all foreclosure activity in the state for March. Once again MaricopaCounty led the way, reporting 7,102 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. PinalCounty came in second, reporting 671 properties with foreclosure filings. Third highest foreclosure total was documented in PimaCounty, where 652 properties with foreclosure filings were reported for the month.

PinalCounty posts state’s top foreclosure rate for March

PinalCounty posted the highest foreclosure rate in the state for March, with one in every 189 households receiving a foreclosure filing — 1.5 times the state average and 2.9 times the national average. MaricopaCounty documented the state’s second highest rate, with one in every 211 households receiving a foreclosure filing — 1.3 times the state average and 2.6 times the national average. Third highest foreclosure rate was reported in Santa Cruz County, where one in every 301 households received a foreclosure filing, 1.8 times the national average.

State contributes to nation’s foreclosure total in March

Total filings in Arizona accounted for 4 percent of the 234,685 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in March. The national total represents a 5 percent increase from the previous month and is 57 percent ahead of the total reported for March 2007. One in every 538 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the month.

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac Monthly U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing reported during the month — broken out by type of filing at the county, state and national level. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default— Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is filed against a property during the month — which is extremely rare — only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

Ranked as the third largest real estate site by MediaMetrix, and No. 53 on Inc. magazine’s 2006 Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing private companies, RealtyTrac Inc. (www.realtytrac.com), is the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, providing all the resources that home seekers, investors and real estate agents need to locate, evaluate and buy properties below market value.

Founded in 1996, RealtyTrac publishes the largest and most comprehensive national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale By Owner, resale and new homes, with more than 1.3 million properties across the country, property reports, productivity tools and extensive professional resources. RealtyTrac hosts nearly 3 million unique visitors monthly and has been chosen to supply foreclosure data to MSN Real Estate, Yahoo! Real Estate and the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal. For more information, visit (www.realtytrac.com).

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.